Google Card Application Updates
Google, owned by Alphabet holding, has announced important changes in the functionality of its Google Card application. These changes restrict the company’s access to user location history, thereby limiting its ability to comply with law enforcement agencies’ requests for data on individuals near crime scenes.
The changes, as mentioned in a blog post by Google this week, will mainly impact the “History of the locations” feature on Google Maps. While this feature is initially turned off, it helps users keep track of their visited places. However, going forward, if users choose to activate this function, their location data will be stored directly on their devices. This means Google will no longer have access to this data and cannot transfer it to law enforcement agencies upon request.
Marlo McGriff, Google Card Products, emphasized in the blog post that “information about your location is personal” and Google is committed to ensuring its safety, confidentiality, and giving control to the user.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) lawyer, Lynch, acknowledged Google’s efforts but also pointed out that Google has been the only tech company for a long time that responded to geofence warrant requests. “It’s great that Google is taking these steps, but no other company collected and retained data in the same way as Google,” she said.
Apple, which also has a maps application, stated that it is technically unable to provide the specific type of location data that law enforcement requires. However, there is another privacy concern with regard to search warrants. These are known as reverse search query orders, where the police can request data on individuals searching for a specific term. Lynch added, “Search requests can be extremely sensitive, even if you are simply looking for an address.”